Looney Tunes

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Sunsoft produces a generic but fun platformer for the Game Boy Color.

By Craig Harris

IGNpocket REVIEW GENERATOR #6F32: SIDESCROLLING PLATFORM, GAME BOY

Sunsoft has done it again. In Looney Tunes for the Game Boy/Game Boy Color, you play The Looney Tunes Gang and run from left to right, hopping on enemies like fish, ghosts, and hopping frogs, collecting gems for extra lives. When you get to the end of each of the Seven levels, you'll meet up with bosses like Marvin the Martian, Elmer Fudd, and a giant frog, and you'll have to hop on their headsmultiple times to destroy them. The game is very generic but fun to play.

Features

Seven levels

Play as seven different Looney Tunes

Infinite continues

For Game Boy and Game Boy Color

I do so love reviewing sidescrolling platform games. Looney Tunes is as formulaic as you can get ¿ but the difference here is that the formula is still good, playable fun.

Looney Tunes is split into seven different levels, each requiring you to control a different Looney Tunes character:

Daffy Duck. In his level, he wields a frisbee and goes up against fish, crabs, and frogs. In one part of a level you'll have to swim to the bottom of the lake to get to the end-boss.

Tweety. You're a tiny canary bird and must fly from left to right avoiding thrown bottles...and worse: Sylvester. Make Sylvester fall into manholes to win.

Porky. This pig's level is not a platformer. This is a very traditional sidescrolling shooter. Remember the episode where Porky flies a jet, shooting satellites and a star holding a fork and spoon? Neither do we.

Tazmanian Devil. There's no way to die in this game ¿ you just flow through a rock-filled quarry finding meats. The more meats eaten, the more points you earn.

Speedy Gonzales. The fastest mouse in all of Mexico gets one of the hardest levels in the game. Enter an Aztec ruin and defeat...Dracula. Yeah...that fits.

Road Runner. This short level challenges you to jump over six falling boulders and then hop on Wile E's head eight times to destroy him.

Bugs Bunny. If you cross Daffy's level with Speedy's level, then you know what to expect from Bugs' level. Bugs weilds, yup, a frisbee, and must do battle with Elmer Fudd to end the game.

At the end of each level, you enter a bonus stage to earn more points or extra lives. Levels like a slot machine, a small game of concentration, even one similar to Balloon Kid on the NES.

Looney Tunes doesn't really add much to the sidescrolling genre, but the elements it adds are the good stuff you remember from games such as Mario, Sonic...even Aero the Acrobat. The game has a lot of variety in terms of how the game is laid out ¿ in some levels you're racing rising lava, in others you're being chased by a giant boulder. Each of the characters control good and tight, and while some of the levels are frustrating to get through, none are so difficult that you won't figure out the pattern to do it.

Just keep in mind the game is short. Very, very short. I whipped through the entire game in a little over an hour. Only the Speedy Gonzales levels really offered any true challenge. And with infinite continues, well, you'll be done pretty quick, too.

The Verdict

It's getting harder and harder to review these games for the Game Boy Color ¿ what can be said about platformers that hasn't been said already? Looney Tunes takes the best of the best and puts it in another game that really didn't need the Looney Tunes to begin with. But hey, name recognition sells games, and at least these characters got a decent game to plow through. It's a shame it's so darn short, though.